Yet another player down

I am literally whistling the theme song from M*A*S*H as I write this entry because another player has prematurely left a game with an injury.

This time it was 2B Brandon Phillips, who departed Thursday’s Reds-Giants tilt in the bottom of the third inning. The issue was a sore left wrist. Phillips was hit by a pitch there on Saturday and missed Sunday’s game. He’s been playing with it the past couple of days.

Drew Sutton pinch-hit for Phillips in the third inning and remained in the game at second base.

This week alone — Phillips, Joey Votto and Willy Taveras (quadriceps) have exited mid-game with an injury. Johnny Cueto officially went on the DL today, too, because of shoulder inflammation.

Postgame update:

“Before the game, he said ‘I don’t know if I can go. I will do what I can,'” Reds manager Dusty Baker said of Phillips. “Then he took those swings off of [Giants starter Matt] Cain. I could see him wincing and could tell he was in pain. He’s day-to-day and hopefully he will be back [Friday].”

“I couldn’t hold the bat on my bottom hand today,” Phillips said. “Maybe it was because we had a early game today, it couldn’t take its time to heal. It swelled up. It’s been bothering me for a while. I was feeling it a little bit yesterday and today I was feeling it a lot. If it was a night game, I would have been able to play the whole game.”

Phillips, who was 0-for-1 with a fly out vs. San Francisco, is batting .260 with 17 home runs and a team-leading 75 RBIs. He hoped to be in the lineup vs. the Pirates.

“If I keep on icing it, I should be,” Phillips said. “I tried to play today so why not try tomorrow?”

On the bright side, the Reds salvaged one game out of the Giants series with a 2-1 win in 10 innings. The winner came on Drew Stubbs’ leadoff homer in the bottom of the 10th — his first in the big leagues.

The only question after Stubbs connected against Bobby Howry’s 2-0 fastball was: fair or foul? The hit kissed off of the left field foul pole.

“I knew I got it good enough. Luckily it tucked right inside the foul pole,” Stubbs said.

“When it went out, I thought it was [fair],” Baker said. “Then I saw it hook at the last minute. I was like ‘please stay fair,’ because we needed that one real bad. You don’t know how bad we needed that one. We got it.”

As he did a postgame TV interview on the field, Stubbs was drenched by Jonny Gomes with a Gatorade cooler. Bronson Arroyo followed up with the ol’ shaving cream pie.

Stubbs was 0-for-4 with three Ks heading into the final at-bat.

“You have to be able to put the failures behind you. That’s something you’ll do a lot of in this game. The best hitters fail 70 percent of the time. I think I was able to clear my head up there and put together a good at-bat.”

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8 Comments

If I was in charge:
Baker and Jocketty both fired.
New manager would become Pete Rose Jr. (with father secretly managing the team via wireless communication device) New GM would be Bowden again (via webcast from the penitentiary that he is in)
Dick Pole would be put on a diet for the remainder of the season 2000 calorie limit after season he would be fired… promptly replaced by…… Greg Maddux
The center field position would no doubt be Stubbs day in and day out for at least one year. Taveras would be used exclusively as a pinch runner. He would never see the field again under my tenure.
Joey Votto would go on the DL for the rest of the season. He could get a cat scan balance his meds, seek help from the head doctors.
Scott Rolen would become a player coach. His primary job would be as personal hitting instructor for Paul Janish and Adam Rosales.
George Brett would be hired at any cost to become our batting instructor and next year would become mentor for Joey Votto.
Starting catcher job would be Hanigans to lose.
Left Fielder Balentin for remainder of season
right fielder Gomes for remainder of season.
Bruce to AAA until he can figure out how to hit a higher average than Gonzalez.
Third base would be rotation of Rolen/Rosales
Shortstop would be Janish
first base would be Barker’s for remainder of year.
ace would be declared as Lehr
second arroyo
third Harang
fourth Owing
fifth travis wood
to the bullpen would go Bailey. No pitcher should have a name of Homer he would be forced into new nick name such as “Bilbo”
Masset back to AAA to make room for Bailey in bullpen.

Everyone would be required to wear their socks like rosales. All shirts would be buttoned to the top button. either beard, mustache or clean shaven no in betweens. ear rings gone. Necklaces gone.
If anyone gets caught not hustling the would be forced to watch 24 hours straight of Pete Rose running to first and taking second on laziness from the fielding team. Second offense $25,000 fine. Third offense off the team no matter who you are Brandon Phillips.

Hours later, no response? Maybe it’s because everyone agrees. I mean, the only thing I couldn’t go along with was Masset going to L-ville so Bilbo Bailey (!) could relieve himself. Well, that and Bowden (reallY?) coming back. Oh, I get it. Marty Brennaman’s gotten on your last nerve and this is your revenge. The Reds remind me of the end of Groundhog Day, which goes something like: ‘That’s different!’ ‘Is that good?’ ‘Anything different is good!’

An apendectomy! Are you kidding me? This has been the weirdest year for injuries, both in number and nature! And of course, CD twists his ankle just when he’s getting his best shot at next year’s starting job.

I was thinking this weekend that one of the great problems of baseball is that players make the most money after they’ve past their prime. Which means that small market teams with limited payrolls often wind up having their quality compromised with contracts that don’t represent comparable performance. big I really, really, really hope this is not the case with Scott Rolen. Really, really.

I don’t think Jocketty should be fired. He’s doing what he can with what we have. I am never one to use injuries as an excuse or let coaches use them as an excuse, but this is getting a little ridiculous this year. We just have too many minor league players trying to play major league baseball. It is too easy to find the holes in their swings for the other teams, hence their batting averages. All year I have read comments from people on here saying how Janish should play more, and how Hanigan should play more, and how Stubbs is the next big thing and Rosales is so good. It just isn’t true, they are decent fill ins but they are not going to be major league starters on a regular basis, they just aren’t. Gomes can’t play the field and Stubbs isn’t the answer right now at all. Here is what next years lineup should look like….

I don’t think Jocketty should be fired. He’s doing what he can with what we have. I am never one to use injuries as an excuse or let coaches use them as an excuse, but this is getting a little ridiculous this year. We just have too many minor league players trying to play major league baseball. It is too easy to find the holes in their swings for the other teams, hence their batting averages. All year I have read comments from people on here saying how Janish should play more, and how Hanigan should play more, and how Stubbs is the next big thing and Rosales is so good. It just isn’t true, they are decent fill ins but they are not going to be major league starters on a regular basis, they just aren’t. Gomes can’t play the field and Stubbs isn’t the answer right now at all. Here is what next years lineup should look like….

BPhil – Your lineup looks ok except for two things. First, next year is an option year for Hernandez and I think it will cost the Reds $8 million dollars (!) to pick it up. Which is to say, he won’t be with the team next year. Second, if Phillips isn’t moving to SS, and Dusty says that’s the case, why has Louisville been instructed to continue Frazier’s experiment at 2nd? So, I think we’ll need Players X at C and LF. But you could be right. Meanwhile, I have an unhappy prediciton: If Taveras doesn’t start Opening Day in CF, I will buy you (all) a steak at Maury’s Tiny Cove.

Ya, we probably shouldn’t pickup that option, but Im not so sure Hanigan is the answer either. How do you have 8 RBI’s when you have played like 80 games, he just doesn’t seem to be clutch. On the other hand, if Hanigan is the starter next year I won’t be upset, I mean, anything is better than the Ross, Bako, Valentien trio from years past.

I kind of agree with you on the Taveras thing, with him being under contract next year and Dusty having a crush on him, there is a good chance he’ll be out there. If Dickerson can play left it wouldn’t be a bad thing.

My take on the Phillips thing is this, he shouldn’t be moved to short. People say that he has a shortstop arm but I just don’t believe it. I don’t know what the deal is with the Frazier thing, maybe they truly are just trying to make him play all positions for the future, or maybe they are looking to move Phillips while his value is still kind of high.

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